Choice Reviews Online· 2012· Review
Ancient Christian martyrdom: diverse practices, theologies, and traditions
- 284citations
- 2012year
Short summary
Ancient Christian martyrdom was not a single concept but a diverse set of practices and theologies that emerged from various cultural contexts, challenging traditional views on its spread and authenticity.
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Key points
- Martyrdom in early Christianity was not a uniform concept but encompassed diverse perspectives and understandings.
- Early Christian views on martyrdom were influenced by existing Greek, Roman, and Jewish ideas about death.
- Distinct and diverging theologies of martyrdom developed within different ancient Christian congregations.
- The study reexamines the authenticity of early Christian martyr stories and challenges dominant scholarly narratives.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The importance of martyrdom for the spread of Christianity in the first centuries of the Common Era is a question of enduring interest. In this innovative new study, Candida Moss offers a radically new history of martyrdom in the first and second centuries that challenges traditional understandings of the spread of Christianity and rethinks the nature of Christian martyrdom itself. Martyrdom, Moss shows, was not a single idea, theology, or practice: there were diverse perspectives and understandings of what it meant to die for Christ. Beginning with an overview of ancient Greek, Roman, and Jewish ideas about death, Moss demonstrates that there were many cultural contexts within which early Christian views of martyrdom were very much at home. She then shows how distinctive and diverging theologies of martyrdom emerged in different ancient congregations. In the process she reexamines the authenticity of early Christian stories about martyrs and calls into question the dominant scholarly narrative about the spread of martyrdom in the ancient world.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Choice Reviews Online, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Religious studies
Religious studiesArts and Humanities